DEAR EDITOR:

As one who served at the Pentagon during 9/11, I was proud to serve under the auspices that I was a defender of our homeland rather than being thought of as one who wages war.

By issuing an executive order to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War, it portrays us as a warmongering nation rather than one that is peace loving. We need to be a role model among nations as one that advocates peace rather than one that stands ready to wage war.

Our president should emulate that which President John F. Kennedy said in a speech at American University in 1963, when “he sought to change the perception that the U.S. was committed to a strategy of aggression and annihilation, instead advocating for a “strategy of peace.”

Our president’s legal counsel should advise him that although he may issue the executive order, only Congress can legally change the name by codifying it into law.

Hopefully, Congress will reject the change.

MATT DROZD

Pittsburgh